<![CDATA[SewHope - General Trip Blogs]]>

The second day at the clinic, a couple of street dogs came wandering onto the property. Street dogs are everywhere in Guatemala and pretty much reviled by everyone. The dogs spend all day scavenging and scrounging whatever scraps of food they can find, sleep on the ground wherever they feel safe, are malnourished and flea/parasite infested, and often get run over because they don’t have the energy to move fast enough out of the way of speeding cars. Local people constantly harass and shoo them away with rocks, kicks, and hisses. The dogs are pretty skittish because of it. On the hierarchy of Guatemalan animals, street dogs hold a place just above rats. The pigs and chickens that also roam around are viewed more favorably. They can be eaten.

So these two street dogs came wandering onto our property and started nosing around. They were both males and one was pretty big, around 40 pounds, and the other was maybe 20 pounds soaking wet. They seemed to be buddies, but were going about their scavenging business separately. I watched them awhile and for kicks named the big one Taco and the small one Taquito. After awhile they left and I thought that would be the end of it, but a few hours later Taquito came back.

The truth is street dogs are a pretty good analogy for Guatemala and the poor who live here. A developing country like Guatemala has a long history of being kicked around and fending off rocks thrown by bigger, stronger, more developed countries including the United States. Minerals, timber, crops, etc. have been and still are illegally extracted, cut down, grown, and sold in highly unsustainable ways on the backs of laborers who have no unions, no safety and health protections, no real opportunities, basically just a life of hard work and exploitation. The wealthy who control this action get richer and richer and the poor barely survive. Like street dogs, the poor in Guatemala are at the bottom of society’s list.

Anyhow, Taquito must have liked what he saw and kept hanging around here. After a few days, some of our team members (OK, it was me) felt sorry for him and gave him some leftovers from dinner and breakfast. Of course after that we were best buddies, and he’d come when I called and enjoyed a good scratch and rub. The other team members got to know and love him just as much and now he sleeps every night on one of the doormats outside our rooms at the hostel. He doesn’t seem to prefer one over the other… he must be a socialist!! We (OK, me again) bought him a collar, gave him deworming medicine, and (with the help of one of the medical students) gave him a flea shampoo. The school kids and the other SewHope staff have gotten to know him and like him a lot. He enjoys meal time with them (and the many fallen bits of kids’ food).

So Taquito’s status has risen. I like to think he’s more hopeful that his life will be good, similar to the people we serve and the stories you’ve read in prior blog posts. I don’t know what will happen to Taquito after we leave. But I know I’m going to leave behind a big bag of dog food with his name on it. I hope he’ll have a better life for at least a little while, and I hope he’ll still be hanging around when I return.

Part 2…
It’s been a couple of days since I wrote the above and we’ve learned something about Taquito. One of the local people recognized him and said he was abandoned by a family that moved away. So Taquito’s an orphan, and I guess for now all of us at the clinic including the school kids, staff, and patients will get to be his adoption family. He’ll surely get lots of attention and love now. One of our night guards was talking to Anne about Taquito. She told the guard he now has a new friend. The guard replied that Taquito also has a new friend!

Randy Ruch is a founding member of SewHope. He joined us in Guatemala (for the umpteenth time) to lend a hand around the property (and make friends with the local dogs) while the medical team worked in the clinic.